Terrain Traversability and Optimal Path Planning in 3D Uneven Environment for an Autonomous Mobile Robot

Abstract

A key issue in mobile robot applications involves building a map of the environment that may be used by the robot for path planning. In this paper, a new approach for uneven environment reconstruction based on the information supplied by a millimetre wave (MMW) radar has been proposed. The returned raw data from the MMW are stored in a database and then transferred to the CAD model, and represented as objects using an algorithm. The non-uniform rational B-splines have been used to extract the polygonal mesh decomposition equivalent to the 3D uneven environment and obstacle surfaces. The polygonal mesh decomposition helps to locate the different obstacles and to build the optimal path to reach the target starting from any initial position, by taking into consideration the terrain traversability. The optimal path is obtained by applying distance calculation method and speed limits. Indeed, the returned path is smooth which is a crucial performance consideration, especially for practical service robots.

NURBs Based Multi-robots Path Planning with Obstacle Avoidance

“…Compared to the existing works discussed in the introduction, more study is required to solve multiple robot collision avoidance, especially in crowded environments [4], [16]. In addition, the current studies' optimality still needs to be improved [5]- [8].…”

“…With 𝑑 𝑖𝑗 is the distance separating two adjacent control points 𝑄 𝑖(𝑗−1) , 𝑄 𝑖𝑗 (the distance along a path segment). In 2D space, it can be calculated using Equation (16):…”

“…First, the proposed technique finds each robot's free, smooth, optimal path while avoiding collision with the existing obstacles. Our mobile robot path planning strategy based on NURBS, previously published in [15], [16], is used to plan a free optimal path for multi-robots. However, this work will generalize the approach for multi-robots while avoiding collisions with obstacles and between the robots themselves.…”